Re: [ksurf] Thanks for inventing the best sport in the world.

My friend I cant agree with you more, I love what you wrote, We are a family who love this sport, My God bless you for your kind words. scottdegelman

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, Feb 16, 2007

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My friend I cant agree with you more, I love what you wrote, We are a family who love this sport, My God bless you for your kind words.

scottdegelman <aruba@...> wrote:

I just wanted to thank you guys for getting this incredible sport off the ground.

I cannot imagine how fun, nor imagine the frustrations competing, designing and producing endless prototypes. When I was a kid I was always obssesed with the wind. Why could you not have invented this when I was playing with garbage bags? Any
time it was blowing we would head to the park and run after these plastic bags like morons. One day I was mesmerized when my friend brought out the first big orange garbage bag I ever saw. I think I said "Where did you get that?" Years after my disturbed childhood my first design project in University was a kite. You were judged on how "original" (basically how stupid you could make it look), but if it didn't fly you failed. I got lucky with my winged mylar stick job and passed with my 20 second flight. Later in life I recieved a HIS and HERS orange garbage bags as a wedding gift...I split a gut but my wife gave me the "what the hell is that?" look.

I was pretty hooked on the whole windsurf thing for years. It is still a great sport, but the winters sucked. What do you do? I was trying to rig my windsurf sail to a whole pile of crappy protoytpes -metal monsters, skate blade boards, ski contraptions, wheel barrow
wheel boards and plywood pieces of junk.

Then I tired a kite. The first time I tried a real kite was on the snow with a kiwi snowboard buddy. We stacked three 10' Flexifoils. We didn't get too far with them as we were on pure mountain ice and couldn't hold an edge. I will never forget the pull of this first kite - I was sold. It felt like I hooked a train. I then tried a C-Quad, Gun, Wipica, Naish, Cabrina, Best and probably missed a few.I've had countless stupid incidents, and potential hospital visits with some of these early kites. At first, I thought you get going by taking out your biggest two line foil out and hot launch it straight down wind. That was interesting.

Not too far back I remember the safe spot to put your kite was at the "Zenith" straight over head. I think I broke my foot that day. Then I remember the fail-proof snap shackle that doesn't like to open when you kind of wish you didn't have
a kite attached to you. I think I got a concussion that day. The sad fact is I met a guy months BEFORE that had a YKK zipper from his forehead to the back of his neck after checking into the fourth floor of a hotel. Same shackle. Or how about the wrist leash and the board leash. Those were fine inventions. I remember being hog tied and pulling a little red ball with my only two available Houdini fingers.

We live in Western Canada (Saskatchewan) , and now have about 12 guys that routinely go out on the snow at night with miner's lights in the winter when we run out of daylight. It is a surreal feeling snow boarding in a blizzard at night, through the hills of powder. Summers are even better. It still makes me laugh when I overhear someone complain about the wind...

I now change kites like I change shoes these days. The new kites are just incredible and every time I think they have perfected it, they come
up with some smalll thing that changes the rules. Kites just keep getting better every year and all with big leaps in safety, comfort, performance, range and relaunchablility. What's next? I can't wait to find out. If all sports are a church, kiteboarding is the alter; a living obsession with thousands of people world wide.

Here is to those early industrious few that helped perfect the orange garbage bag

"Come, come again, whoever you are, come!Heathen, fire worshipper or idolatrous, come!Come even if you broke your penitence a hundred times,Ours is the portal of hope, come as you are."Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi

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